


Riddles of the Heart

by TheLionInMyBed



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Humor, M/M, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 21:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5841655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLionInMyBed/pseuds/TheLionInMyBed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you break me, I’ll not stop working.<br/>If you can touch me, my work is done.<br/>I can be stolen or given away and you will live,<br/>yet you cannot live without me.<br/>What am I?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riddles of the Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlackWave](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWave/gifts).



> Written for BlackWave after the first episode of Gotham came out (i.e. the only episode of Gotham I have seen). This is very bad and I don't know why I'm posting it.

_If you break me, I’ll not stop working._  
_If you can touch me, my work is done._  
_I can be stolen or given away and you will live,_  
_yet you cannot live without me._  
_What am I?_

Detective Jim Gordan glared down at the crumpled piece of notepaper on his desk. As the only honest cop in a department full of corruption, he had grim, dark streets to clean up. He did not have time for riddles, neither this one, scrawled in a shaky, nervous hand, nor the larger question of why the twitchy young coroner kept leaving them for him to find.

He grabbed the note and strode heroically down to the basement laboratory, long coat flapping dramatically behind him, manly jaw squared.

He found the forensics specialist leaning over the body of an old man, bloody to the elbows. In the fluorescent lights, he looked as pale and vulnerable as the corpse on the table.

As Jim approached, he delicately lifted the heart free from the corpse’s chest, and held it up for inspection.

“Nygma!” he called. The young man gasped and turned even paler and then, as he looked up and recognized Jim, a delicate pink flush suffused his features.

“D-detective,” he stammered, “what-what brings you down here?” His gaze flitted from Jim’s face down to the note in his hand.

“This has to stop, Nygma,” Jim said noirishly. “These notes, the flowers, the chocolates. I don’t know what they’re supposed to mean. I’m a detective, dammit, not some kind of...of _riddler_!” The lights flickered dramatically at this last statement, and thunder rolled, almost as if to draw attention to those portentous words.

“Please, detective,” Nygma whispered waifishly. “I didn’t mean to upset you. That’s...that’s the last thing I would want.”

“Then stay away from me. I’m a lone wolf on a crusade for justice, an honest cop trying to fix a broken system. I’m...trouble.”

“Don’t say that, detective. You’re a good man. I...I believe in you.”

“How can you? In these dark times, I don’t even believe in myself. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, Nygmar, but you can leave me out of it. Keep this-” he shook the note, crumpled it and dropped it into the wastepaper basket. “-to yourself.” He stormed from the room.

Delicately, Edward lifted the crumpled note from the trash can and smoothed it out, his gloves leaving crimson splotches on the paper.

A single tear rolled down Edward Nygma's cheek and hit the paper, mixing with the blood. "The answer was ‘a heart’," he whispered sadly.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr in the [obvious place](http://thelioninmybed.tumblr.com)!


End file.
